Oak Glen boys, girls sweep Early Bird Invitational

ANDREW GRIMM

Staff writer

BEGINNING — Male runners begin their portion of the Early Bird Invitational on Saturday. (Photo by Andrew Grimm)

WELLSBURG — The 35th-annual Steubenville Early Bird Invitational had a new, temporary home this year with the cooperation of two coaches, allowing the event to happen.

With the track at Harding Stadium, the event’s usual home, being repaired, Brooke High School hosted Saturday’s meet at Brooke Memorial Stadium after Bruins coach Paul Julio and Big Red coach Jason Kernahan came together to make sure the event went on.

“I’m fortunate enough to have a good friend in Paul Julio who was kind enough to say lets have it at Brooke High School instead of canceling it,” Kernahan said. “I said, ‘Lets do it.’ I think it is a great starting point for every team. You have been practicing for three or four weeks, and you finally get to come out and see where you are.”

For Julio, it was a no-brainer.

“It was an honor to help Steubenville Big Red out since their track wasn’t going to be ready in time,” he said. “It was a good day and a good meet.”

After all the events were completed, the big winner was Oak Glen, sweeping both the boys and girls team titles.

The boys put up a score of 116, with five individual event winners. Jacob Clark won the 110-meter hurdles, Seth Mozingo the 300 hurdles, the 3200 relay team (Matthew Wright, Mason Konchar, Konnor Allison and Nathan Atkinson) took the top spot, while Gage Patterson (long jump) and Kellen Tropeck (shot put, discus) nearly gave the Golden Bears a sweep of the field events.

“I’m very, very happy,” Oak Glen boys coach Rance Everly said. “We had a lot of returners coming back, and our goal was to walk away with the trophy. It’s a good sign for things to come.

“This is just the begining. This sets the standard for the rest of the year.”

The girls finished with a score of 100, led by another five event winners. Izzy Barganski swept the hurdles events, the 800 (Barganski, Gracie Wright, Abigail Myers, Maggie Kovalcik) and 1600 (Wright, Arner, Kovalcik, Myers) teams both won, while Kovalcik won the long jump.

“I feel we did pretty well,” Oak Glen girls coach Ashley Tharp said. “We have a young team. We only have four seniors, and they all stepped up. I like to see where we are at right from the start. I tell the girls this is like a big scrimmage to show us where we stand. They met all of our goals as a team. They did an amazing job.”

Big Red placed third in both portions. For the boys, Caleb Mitchell won the 100 dash and anchored the 400 relay team to victory, along with Jaziah Blackwell, Anthony Rice and Tayveon Montgomery. For the girls, T’Kayla Kelley won the 100 and 200 dashes.

“I’m happy with it,” Kernahan said. “We have a starting point now. We know where we can improve, what we need to work on and where we can fine-tune some things.”

Catholic Central also had a solid day, placing second in the girls portion and fith in the boys. The girls got individual wins from Rebecca Bodo in the 400 dash and the 400 relay combination of Rebecca Bolster, Elizabeth Bolster, Emma Borden and Emily Vitlip.

On the boys side, Joe Rohde won the 800 and Patrick Kuebler the 3200.

“Our main goal coming into this was to get our new people in some events and let them get experience,” Catholic Central coach Bob Stanko said. “We wanted them to get the feel for a high school track meet. We see where we stand. We did some time trials, but this is more of a real test and, overall, we did very well. Our new people had a great day, and we had some great things happen.”

Indian Creek was top five in both portions, as the girls placed fourth and boys fifth. The 3200 relay team of Rileigh Gualtiere, Payton Freshwater, Abby Copeland and Sloane Lewis gave the girls an event win, while the boys got one from Logan Davis in the 400 dash.

The Brooke girls placed a solid fifth on their home track, while the boys were 13th. Emily Donley was the top girl performer for the Bruins with a second place in the 3200 run.

“We did very well,” Julio said. “We are young. My young kids did what I expected of them, and we have a starting point.”

Madonna finished seventh in the boys portion and eighth in the girls. The Blue Don boys got a win from Angelo Quattrochi in the 1600 run, while the girls’ top placer was Kennedy Martin, who was second in the discus throw.

The Edison Wildcats ended up just inside the top 10 in both the boys and girls portions. The girls were ninth with a strong showing in the field events from Faith Hoobler, who threw both the discus and shot put, while the boys got second place showing from Kaleb Waggoner in the high jump. Bryce McAfoose was third in the 300 hurdles and fourth in the 110 hurdles.

“It’s the first meet, and that’s awlways tough,” Edison coach Todd Smith said. “We had some good times. Not the best times, but you don’t want the best times in the first meet. It gives us something to work with.”

A young Weir High team, without a couple of its top members, placed eigth in the boys portions and 10th in the girls. The top finish on the girls side was from the 400 relay team of Taryn Davis, Sarah Hudacheck, Nevaeh Colliers and Blaire McUmar, which placed second. The boys got fourth-place showings from Quincey Damerson in the 100, James Littleton in the 300 hurdles, Reed Reitter in the long jump and a pair of relay teams (800 and 3200).

“It was a rough day for us, honestly,” Weir coach Tom Taylor said. “We are young and inexperienced, and it showed. But, I was pleased with the effort the kids gave. It was a learning experience. I look for good things as the season goes on, especially when we get Sebastian Spencer and Skylar Jackson, who were on college visits (Saturday), back. Overall, I’m pleased. We had a lot of kids doing events for the first time and learning. That was a positive side.”

Buckeye Local was ninth on the boys side, with Jacob Pielech finishing second in the 200 and third in the 400. The girls ended the day 12th.

Toronto finished the day 11th in the girls portion and 12th on the boys side. Isabella Irwin won the girls high jump for the Red Knights.

For Martins Ferry, which was seventh on the girls side and 11th on the boys side, Natalie Forsyth swepth the long distance runs, winning the 1600 and 3200 for the Purple Riders.

Wheeling Central was sixth on the girls side, led by Nicole Billie’s win in the 800 and 14th on the boys side.

East Liverpool ended the day sixth on the boys side (it did not field a girls team in the event), led by Brennan Smith (fourth in the 800) and Izaiha Browning (fourth in the 3200).